![]() ![]() With the success of that project, Vogel has announced plans to do the same for Avernum 2 and 3, though not for 4-6 as they reportedly remain playable for now. In 2011, when the original Avernum trilogy had subsequently aged out of relevance, Avernum 1 was remade in Spiderweb's modern engine as Avernum: Escape from the Pit and released for digital distribution via Steam and similar services. A second trilogy followed in 2005, '07 and '09 as Avernum 4, 5 and 6. (Basically fantasy Australia.) Exile 2 and 3 followed in '95 and '96, and here's where things get complicated: several years later, when the old Exile engine was no longer fit for contemporary PCs, these three games were remade as Avernum 1, 2 and 3. Mildly disappointing but inevitable, and personally in Geneforge I came to enjoy the opportunity to "reset" my roleplaying choices and perspective on the world in each entry, without feeling like I was betraying the decisions I'd made earlier.įirst coming to life as Exile in 1995, the series banishes the player to an underground prison society teeming with lizard- and cat-monsters. Sequels adopt one version of the story as canon. Because the freedom you have in any single game is so vast, it's simply not feasible to reflect the different ways each player's game could end in the next entry. The caveat to all that talk about choice is that there's no save-importing feature in the style of Bioware sequels. You're rarely locked into a certain path once you set upon it, allowing new information or a change of heart to influence your choices. ![]() Characters and factions are presented with surprising nuance. Settings are more inventive than the commonplace Tolkein/Star Wars pastiches that define so many games. The main attraction to many Spiderweb fans is in the degree of freedom players have to influence the story, which typically goes beyond a simple "good path"/"evil path" common to many modern RPGs. Demos are always available and are extensive, offering a large, full-featured chunk of the game world. Each game can easily last 40 to 60 hours. Gameplay, similar across all Spiderweb titles, is characterized by turn-based combat employing a system of action points similar to the first Fallout games - rarely complex but with a fair amount of depth and variety of approaches. The presentation is isometric ("2.5D"), unadorned but simple and laptop-friendly, with extensive text descriptions doing the scene-setting the graphics can't. With several games having been recently featured in various indie bundles, you probably already own one of these. Founded in 1994, Spiderweb long relied on the "demoware" business model, offering niche products to a small audience of hardcore gamers until a recent renaissance via digital distribution. Renowned by fans of old-school RPGs in the vein of Baldur's Gate or Fallout, Spiderweb games make up for minimalist graphics and wonky interfaces with strong world-building, storytelling and role-playing opportunities. Spiderweb Software is a veteran indie game developer run by Seattle's Jeff Vogel, who writes and codes each game. ![]()
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